Tag: film

Lunch Break

How about some random thoughts about nothing important to close out my lunch break?

Tomorrow is October’s work-in-the-office day. It might be my last day at my current desk. So many memories… no, wait. Almost no memories. I’ve only sat at that desk about 10 times since moving there in 2020 (I think). I need to plan out how I am going to get my 80 (not 60) grams of protein for the day. I’ll bring some chopped up chicken and maybe a protein snack or two. Maybe a protein shake in the morning before I go and a protein bar in the car on the way? I’ll figure it out tonight.

I haven’t played my guitar in ages. I am sad. I was thinking about taking my Les Paul out of the case just for today’s photo a day thing. I am hoping if I do that it will goad me into playing some. I need to play. This is stupid. I need to play. I think I am afraid that if I do try to play I will try to record something and find that I am still having the lagging problems I had with GarageBand last month. I may wipe my MacBook and then restore it and see if I still have the problem. I am frankly terrified. We’ll see.

Film is coming. I had a little stash of cash in my wallet that I was saving up to use for film purchases. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any place near home that sells anything other than cheaper color drugstore film. I wanted to get some cheaper black and white film to play with, and I wanted to get some slightly better film to use at Disney World in January. I couldn’t find anything like that anywhere. To remedy this, I rolled my cash stash into an Amazon gift card. I spent it all yesterday. I bought some cheap film, some decent film, and a couple of rolls of pretty good film. Amazon has shipped most of it already. The first package might be here tomorrow. We’ll see. I also bought an adapter that hopefully will let me use the Pentax lenses on my Nikons, including (maybe) my digital SLR. I’ll have to figure out how to let the DSLR use a manual aperture setting for it to work, but if I can figure it out it could be freakin’ cool.

Okay. Lunch break is over. I still need that photo a day thing. Maybe I’ll sneak into the yard and snap some colored leaves. Maybe I’ll document Bertha the House Plant’s newly forming leaf. Maybe I’ll take my Les Paul out of it’s case. I’ll let you know when I figure it out.

Calling Me… Calling Me…

A follow up to last night’s post about wanted to shoot some film now, thus breaking my pledge to wait until late November…

35/365
35/365

It’s calling me… calling me… calling me…

Technically those nine rolls of film should be in a refrigerator, but I am not that far down the rabbit hole yet. My desk will do for now.

For now.

Stay the Course Don’t Give In

No, this post isn’t about my stupid personal Facebook ban, though you might think so based on the title.

I watched a bunch of film photography vlogs on YouTube tonight. Now I know I said I was putting film photography silliness on hold until around Thanksgiving* but I super want to get a bunch of rolls of cheap black and white film and load it into dad’s Pentax and throw his zoom lens on (because I’ve yet to really use it) and go out shooting film!

No, Robert! Fight the urge! Fight the urge!

*For the first time since I was hired in 2004, I do not have the day after Thanksgiving off this year. I’ll put in for PTO if no one from my staff puts in first. The four day Thanksgiving weekend is literally my favorite holiday of the year. I wonder if Thanksgiving will be weird this year, due to having a mangled stomach and rewired intestines. We will see.

The Film is In

The two rolls of film that were out for delivery are in! They said 5-10 business days and then sent them back to me on a Saturday! I love this lab! Old School Photo Lab gets it done again!

It’s all up on Flickr now. I’ll post something later today. For now I want to visit Mom and then see if I can get myself some clothes that fit me. After that, more pic posts!

Primary Day

I cast ballot #5 in precinct #5 in Methuen, MA today.

We had planned to apply for a vote by mail ballot, but we forgot to send in the application. Next time, for sure. So today I went to the poll just after it opened. They moved my precinct to a new location. I was a little nervous about the very small parking lot, but I was early enough that it wasn’t an issue. The city has a new check in/check out system so hopefully that all goes well and there aren’t any hiccups.

My civic duty is done once again. While I was out I also dropped my two rolls of film into the mail to get developed. I’m using the same New Hampshire based lab as last time. Here’s hoping the turn around time is as lightning fast as last time. Also, here’s hoping my Ebay Nikon’s A (basically aperture priority) mode works and I didn’t ruin a roll by test driving it.

I’m back at work after the holiday. My exercise ring is closed. All is right with the world… except for the whole empty nest thing and my parents’ health situation and all of that stuff. Other than that, all is right with the world.

Happy Tuesday.

Shooting in the Morn?

Jen booked an appointment for early tomorrow morning so I’m going to be up with her. I guess that will give me a chance to go out and shoot me some pics.

I’m thinking of bringing the Nikon family over to the rail trail. I took dad’s Pentax there once but the film roll broke or jammed or some shit and the pics I took were ruined and chucked. I’ll try again while also maybe trying some digital black and white. That’ll be a fun way to kick off a photo-a-day thing, right?

It all depends on the whether. I think I have 15 or so shots left on the current roll of film. When it’s done I’ll have two rolls to develop. Then I want to buy a couple of rolls of the cheapest black and white film I can find. I want to use dad’s camera for the great black and white experiment. I think dad’s camera is just plain better than mine.

I’m still planning on turning our January Disney trip into the greatest film photography experience in human history, but I think I need to stock up on a few more rolls first. I’d like to try and get a couple of rolls of high ISO film to use at night, but that’s going to be on the expensive side so I need to save up a little first.

And that’s the film situation at this moment in time.

And now it’s bed time. Goodnight, Moon.

Edits

I don’t know Jack about editing photos. I usually just let Apple Photos do it for me. Today I decided to change that so I installed Lightroom Mobile on my iPad and started pressing buttons and dragging sliders around.

How’d I do?

Not messed with
Messed with
Not messed with
Messed with

Guitars on Film

When worlds collide.

Oh yeah, there’s that film Instagram too, in case I haven’t mentioned it in the last four minutes…….

Things I’ve Learned Today

I have learned two things since getting my four rolls of film scans today. Both are very important.

First, the Ebay Nikon works fine. The lens feels like it’s starting to fall apart, which is concerning, and there is a little bit of a rattle in there somewhere when you’re moving around. Both concerning. I half expected all of the images to be destroyed by light leaks. I was seriously nervous.

Nope, most of the pictures look fine. Some are way better than just fine. Some are blurry messes. I think that might have been due to me fumbling with low light and slow shutter speeds. It is legitimately hard to focus that lens. That’s part of it too. User error to the max. Those failures are a statistically relevant percentage of the whole, but for the most part things look great. $17.50 well spent. Now if I can just get a 50mm prime with a really wide aperture. Nikon Acquisition Syndrome rears it’s ugly head.

The second thing I’ve learned is kinda stereotypical, kinda infuriating, and kinda really freakin’ funny.

I may be the King of sticking my finger in front of the lens. There are a bunch of pictures from both cameras where there is something in the way in the lower right hand corner of the image. It’s a bit of my left index finger. Most likely my knuckle. I picked up the Nikon and focused on a couple of things and then stopped myself to review where my left hand was sitting, and sure enough my big fat knuckle was sticking up and in the shot. Dumb ass. It doesn’t really ruin any of the pictures, but it’s something I am going to work on never ever doing again.

One bonus thing that I learned, setting the camera’s ISO to 200 when you’re using 400 is not really the end of the world. The first time I changed film in the Nikon I took out a roll of Kodak Gold 200 and put in a roll of FujiFilm 400 and forgot to change the ISO setting. I didn’t notice until after I had taken 6-7 pictures. I expected them to be train wrecks. They weren’t. They seem a little overexposed, but not terribly. They all look pretty good.

Overall, I am pleased with what I see. I’ll post them on the other page and then reblog them here. I am going to try and limit myself to one or two a day. These puppies need to last for a while.

Happy Nerd News on a Busy Morning

Today has been a touch on the nutso-busy side. Not a complaint, just a statement. Good things are going on, they are just taking up time.

I haven’t had the opportunity to post anything yet today, which is a little unusual. I haven’t been able to comment on how trading off one of my favorite Red Sox players has resulted in two wins against a World Series contender. What? How does that work? I haven’t been able to mention how I am suddenly kind of a San Diego Padres fan. Holy murderers row, Batman!

I had to take a second and write this post though because I just got an email from the photo lab and they sent me the scans of my four rolls of film. I’ve only looked at a couple of images so far, just to make sure they came out, and WOW do the ones I’ve looked at look good! Pics from Dad’s Pentax and from the Ebay Nikon both look excellent. My lunch break will see me getting everything up onto Flickr, but hot damn am I happy right now! Film-Photographically-Happy to be precise.

WOOHOO!